


can you really be my hero?

by buffylovesfaith



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Alternate Universe - Diners, F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-09
Updated: 2017-05-09
Packaged: 2018-10-29 22:01:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10862952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buffylovesfaith/pseuds/buffylovesfaith
Summary: Buffy is a jaded waitress working for minimum wage and living alone in a dirty city, when a drifter named Faith comes through town and shakes her life up.





	can you really be my hero?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> For moonwalk! (ginmione on tumblr). This story was inspired by a post she made about a fuffy diner au. Also written for and posted on fuffy day on tumblr!

Buffy lifted the edge of her apron to mop her sweaty brow. The sun’s strong rays shone through the wide glass windows of Lucille’s Cafe, where Buffy worked six days a week (nine am to seven pm), and the summer heat could be felt even indoors. The Lucille of Lucille’s Cafe was long gone, and had been replaced by an asshole manager named Steven, who Buffy only put up with because she needed the money to pay for her rundown apartment. The downtown corner coffee shop had seen better days; the white washed walls had yellowed, the tile floors were stained, the cheery blue seat cushions were cracked, dust covered the Marilyn Monroe posters and the place was mostly frequented by truckers stopping off of the main highway now. Buffy’s life consisted of waking up at six am, rushing to get ready in her crummy apartment, rushing to catch the train to get to her crummy job on time, then rushing back to eat a TV dinner in front of her flickering television and fall sleep on her crummy couch. Rinse and repeat; her weekends were spent grocery shopping or sleeping in. _God_ , this life was wearing her down. She was hoping to quit and find something more productive to do, if she were ever able to save any money. 

Buffy sighed and pulled her damp hair into a tighter ponytail, and smoothed her white, pleated waitress uniform. Her smoke break was up. Five more hours of pouring coffee and dodging the hands of crusty, smelly men who sat at the counter and tried to grab her ass as she passed by. She picked up a pot of stale coffee of of its station and started pouring cups for everyone sitting at the front, assembly line fashion, when something caught her eye. A girl, about Buffy’s age (so eighteen or nineteen, probably) was sitting alone at the corner table. She was slouched in a leather jacket, black tank top, and short jean shorts, and her spread legs ended in heavy black boots. Her brunette hair fell in waves in front of her eyes, and she chewed her bottom lip as she concentrated on...carving something into the table top with a knife. Buffy set the coffee pot down with a thump, and walked over and tapped the upper arm of the other waitress on duty. Betty was a grumpy woman nearing fifty, and had worked there longer than anyone else. 

“Hi, Betty,” Buffy started with a fake smile. “Do you know who that girl is over there?” She tilted her head in the direction of the out-of-place customer. 

Betty turned lethargically from where she was wiping the counter with a cloth, glanced toward the corner, and shrugged. “I ain’t never seen her before. You want me to get the manager?”

“No. No, thanks, I’ll handle this on my own.” Buffy turned and marched off in the direction of the vandalizer. She stopped and stood over the girl when she reached her table.

“I’d assume you know you’re not supposed to do that, but what do I know? Maybe you were raised by heathens and have been living under a rock and this is your first venture out into civilization.”

The girl did not look startled by Buffy’s sudden presence, instead she raised her head slowly, and flashed a lazy smile while looking at her through sleepy, shiny brown eyes. 

“Normally I’d say ‘you know what they say about assuming’, but in this case you’d be right. I’ve been out in civilization for a long time now, though.” She bent back down and started to chip small pieces of wood off of the table once more. 

“Okay, seriously, you need to stop that. Don’t make me kick you out.” Buffy raised a pointed finger at the “ _we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone_ ” sign that was hung above the entry door.

“Why do you care? You don’t own the joint, right? You probably make like two bucks an hour…. If it was me, I’d love to have someone give a little ‘fuck you’ to the corporation on my behalf.” She winked at Buffy and made a little bowing motion. “I’m at your service, miss. Your boss gets pissed off, I get to wreck some pretty tame but still fun havoc under your protection...sounds like a win-win to me.”

Buffy gritted her teeth. “First of all, I _don’t_ care. If it was up to me you could carve swear words right into the walls of this soul sucking garbage heap. But who do you think the manager blames when someone damages something on _my_ shift? Me. And who do you think doesn’t get tipped when the customers don’t like the fact that their table is covered in-” Buffy glanced down at the crude picture the girl had made, which resembled a sun wearing a pair of sunglasses. Okay. “-some pretty amateur level art. _Me_. So as much as I might like to, I am _not_ going to let you keep destroying the property on my watch.”

The girl blinked at Buffy’s outburst. “Whoa. Um, okay.” She folded up the pocket knife. “I’ll just stop then, yeah?”

Buffy nodded stiffly. “Thank you.” She had turned back toward the counter and was halfway across the room when the girl called out, “Hey, can I get some fries?”

Buffy sighed and rolled her eyes but turned around yet again, pulling her notepad out of her pocket as she headed back to her table. “What size did you want?”

“Large. Extra large. With cheese on top.”

“We don’t have an extra large, but I can add cheese for an extra fifty cents.”

“Alright, that’s fine.” The girl smiled widely at her. “Hey, what’s your name?”

“Why?”

“Well...most people like to know their waitresses name, so they can call them by it. It’s like polite and stuff.” The girl sounded like she was talking to an eight year old and not a perfectly competent--make that _more_ than competent--nineteen year old waitress. “But you don’t have a name tag.”

“It’s Buffy.”

“Thanks, Buffy.”

“Okay… Uh, I’ll have your fries in a few minutes.”

*

The fries had been cooked and served, but Buffy didn’t have two minutes free before she was being distracted by the annoying girl again. This time she had knocked her plate of fries off of the table and on to the floor. Buffy wanted to yell at her, but that wouldn’t look good in front of the other customers. Instead she headed over with a broom. 

“Sorry, Buffy.”

Buffy sighed, trying to remain calm. “That’s...okay. It’s just been one of those days, I guess.” _Not that they aren’t_ all _one of those days_ , she thought.

“Oh yeah? Well, shit...now I feel bad for doing that on purpose.”

Buffy’s mouth dropped open. “ _What_? Why would anyone even _do_ something like that?”

The girl shrugged, looking a little sheepish. “I dunno. It seemed like a good idea two minutes ago.”

Buffy didn’t inquire further, just bent down and swept the wasted fries into a dust bin with jerky movements.

The girl leaned forward to get a better look. “Hey...if it makes you feel any better...you’ve got a great ass, Buffy. Really, I mean it.”

Buffy swiftly stood up straight. _Great_. This girl was worse than all the horny men that came through here on a daily basis. Buffy stalked away, and decided to take off early.

*

Another dull week had ticked slowly by before Buffy saw the girl again. Until she’d showed up for the second time, Buffy thought the girl had just been passing through town like most people did (not that she had given her much thought).

Buffy was still annoyed but decided to take her table anyway. She didn’t really think about why. 

The girl looked up at her with a smile when Buffy approached her. 

“So, my generous tips make it worth your while for you to serve me again, huh? Or is it my good looks, charming personality and mad skills?”

“Just trying to avoid thing one and thing two over there.” Buffy gestured toward a two top where two burly and bearded men sat, who looked hungry in more ways than one. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

“Hey, listen, I’m sorry if you didn’t appreciate my, uh, “great ass” comment. It was supposed to be a compliment, ya know? Sometimes I don’t edit myself enough I guess.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Whatever, it’s fine. Some people just operate on a lower level of maturity and understanding of social norms. And what girls _actually_ like.”

The girl started to open her mouth to say something when Buffy continued. “But at least it was true. I _do_ have a great ass.” She was in a slightly better mood today. 

The brunette’s eyes widened slightly in surprise, but she remained on track defending herself. “Hey! I know what girls like. Trust me. You could call me a lot of things and you’d be right, but no one can ever say I’m not good with the ladies.”

Buffy crossed her arms. “Sure. I’ll believe it when I see it.”

The girl shrugged and leaned back in her seat, smirking with one side of her mouth. “You into some kind of voyeurism shit? Kinky. But be my guest and you can come over sometime and see all you want. I’ve never left a woman unsatisfied.”

The two women held a staring contest of sorts for longer than necessary until Buffy looked away, reddening slightly. 

“D-do you, uh, want some coffee or something?”

The brunette grinned. “No, thanks. But I will take a muffin. Whatever chocolate kind you got. And a strawberry smoothie.”

Buffy jotted the order down hastily on her notepad. “Okay, coming right up.” She blew out a shaky breath as she walked away. 

*

“So, what are you doing around here?” Buffy asked the girl when she came to check if she was enjoying herself. It was part of the job. 

“Whaddaya mean?” The girl spoke with an open mouth full of double chocolate chip muffin. 

“I mean, most of the customers we get in here are truckers. Or motorcyclists. People who just stop in once. Not a lot of people live in this part of the city. Did you just move here, or something?”

“No. I’m just...a drifter, you could say. Come and go as I please. Sometimes I stay in a place for one night, sometimes I’ll stay longer.”

“So I guess this isn’t one of the one night places? Not sure why anyone would _want_ to stay here for more than one, though.”

“Uh, no reason.” The girl looked down and hastily took another bite of muffin. She looked to be blushing slightly. “It’s just random. What about you? Why do you stay here?”

Buffy frowned. “I haven’t found a way out yet. But trust me, I don’t plan on staying here forever. The sooner I can leave, the better.”

The girl nodded. “Well, at least you have a plan, right?”

“Yeah.” Buffy smiled and started to turn away, but then turned back. “Hey...by the way, uh, what’s you name?”

The girl smiled. “My name’s Faith.”

**Author's Note:**

> Please let me know that you thought! This is going to be a pretty short story with only one or two more chapters (I think), and the next chapter should be up soon.


End file.
